Cashless Catering System - Cunnighams and Nationwide Retail Systems Ltd

Printable View

Show 25 post(s) from this thread on one page

8th April 2011, 08:35 PM
Tallwood_6

We have just ordered NRS here after demos of cunninghams vericool. NRS stood out as the software seemed the most user friendly, front and backend and is entirely there own unlike the others. The tills and readers also seemed much more robust, the only negative is in the default setup seem to run everything from nothing more than a pc setup for use by the canteen staff if this goes down then your in trouble.
8th April 2011, 10:15 PM
adamf

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tallwood_6

The tills and readers also seemed much more robust, the only negative is in the default setup seem to run everything from nothing more than a pc setup for use by the canteen staff if this goes down then your in trouble.

I'd agree with that. They told us that it would run on it's own network and they'd link into ours for the purpose of accessing the Internet so it could sync with ParentPay.

I told them no and have everything running on our network, the backend app and SQL database is installed on one of our servers.

My only other comment is regarding the client installation.... A very lengthy process (compared to what it could be) requiring you to install various different bits of software, copy this there, copy that there and then change a couple of ini files.... Then it works!
8th April 2011, 10:43 PM
FN-GM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tallwood_6

We have just ordered NRS here after demos of cunninghams vericool. NRS stood out as the software seemed the most user friendly, front and backend and is entirely there own unlike the others. The tills and readers also seemed much more robust, the only negative is in the default setup seem to run everything from nothing more than a pc setup for use by the canteen staff if this goes down then your in trouble.

Last time i installed the software on a PC it was a nightmare! you had to mess about moving files making manual edits after you have done the install.

I have worked in a few schools that uses Nationwide, my first school was the first on in the country to go biometric. On the whole the system seems pretty good. They dont seem flexible with what the software is hosted on. They wouldnt let us virtualise the servers etc.
9th April 2011, 12:57 AM
p858snake

Quote:

Originally Posted by john

I'm in the planning stages of Cashless so this is useful discussion on here, in terms of your point, I am proposing that one of the tills in the dining room is on a UPS and I am aiming, due to the proximity of the dining room to the Server Room, to directly cable the points from the tills in the dining room to the Server Room where I will have it all on a small dedicated server which can run on the big UPS in there, so fine we maybe down to one till from two but we should still be able to run a dinner service as actual serving / till usage time in a dinner service is 15 to 20 minutes, thus a 30 minute runtime UPS, as the tills don't seem to have huge electrical drains, should be suitable I would hope.

Without looking/seeing the software, but a frontend for a POS client shouldn't need all that much so you might be able to get around with terminal servering it and running thin clients which would save even more power so you could have smaller upses for them, and keep the server on a larger one as well.... (and less objects to break as well)
9th April 2011, 01:18 AM
Little-Miss

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tallwood_6

We have just ordered NRS here after demos of cunninghams vericool. NRS stood out as the software seemed the most user friendly, front and backend and is entirely there own unlike the others.

That's what sold it to me...

So parent pay can be intergrated into the system, i needed to ask them this again? My Head is now saying that he wants to be able to do more then just use the cash machines, wants to start doing donations/trips etc..
9th April 2011, 08:34 AM
robk

I understand that parent pay is supported by NRS I saw the options when setting up our cmis link.

In terms of ups support its worth thinking how much the canteen can continue serving with no power.

In fact as our site uses pumped storage for water we end up closing if a power cut lasts more than half an hour. (1400 students and no flushing toilets can be a problem!)
9th April 2011, 09:05 AM
Tallwood_6

If you have sims then the best method is to have sims sync with parentpay (parentpay have an app for this) then have nrs talk directly to parentpay. If you have cmis like us though you have to manually upload any changes to parentpay and manually upload pictures from cmis which is a royal pain.
9th April 2011, 09:09 AM
Tallwood_6

Quote:

Originally Posted by Little-Miss

That's what sold it to me...

So parent pay can be intergrated into the system, i needed to ask them this again? My Head is now saying that he wants to be able to do more then just use the cash machines, wants to start doing donations/trips etc..

I dont have much involvement with parentpay here I leave it with finance, but we do use it already for trips etc the idea being with the exception of a few once NRS is in we will be completely cashless.
9th April 2011, 02:25 PM
Steven_Cleaver

I have used both systems to be honest not much to choose between the two, both pretty decent systems the only downside I have noticed on the NRS side is the finger print readers don't quite seem as effective as they could be and it does sometimes take two or three goes to read fingerprints which can slow things down quite a bit.I also have moved from Cunninghams to NRS and you can just copy the Impact folder and copy this anywhere and have access to all your past data for that year, but looking at the NRS setup this wouldn't be quite as easy. We also have had some minor teething problems with both systems.
15th April 2011, 01:37 PM
peepsw

The NRS system can be run from a virtual server without problem. All you have to do is tell them what you want. They also intergrate with all available on line payment companies not just ParentPay.
15th April 2011, 03:42 PM
nadeem

I evaulated both - I can say that NRS have been very good so far (our server is virtualised). It integrates with a number of other systems, including print control systems.
25th June 2011, 09:54 AM
SiteManager

VM and Servers

I Have worked with NRS to install on VMware and on virtual servers. They have only just completed this development.
2nd July 2011, 12:31 PM
SiteManager

Other Payment Engines

Quote:

Originally Posted by peepsw

The NRS system can be run from a virtual server without problem. All you have to do is tell them what you want. They also intergrate with all available on line payment companies not just ParentPay.

What other payment providers do they integrate to?
17th July 2011, 12:23 PM
peepsw

Quote:

Originally Posted by SiteManager

What other payment providers do they integrate to?

NRS intergeate wth Parent Mail +Pay, Wisepay, Tucassi, Civic, and SQuid as well as ParentPay.
28th July 2011, 09:17 PM
SiteManager

CMIS

Quote:

Originally Posted by pcstru

We've used NRS for the last ~5 years (before my time), integrating with CMIS and more recently ParentPay. I did write quite a bit more but I'll sum it up with this : We are quite likely to be looking to refresh our cashless catering systems in the next couple of years. I doubt NRS will be sitting at the top of our list.

CMIS is automated now in NRS as I understand, as used in Telford. So i dont get your gripe... :confused:

Show 25 post(s) from this thread on one page